Your Impact

Funds from the Endowment are strategically disbursed and administered by the Legal Foundation of Washington to 23 organizations across our state, helping low-income families address urgent civil legal problems every day.

According to the 2015 Washington State Civil Legal Needs Study, three out of four Washington residents living below poverty level will face an urgent civil legal crisis every year. But only one-quarter of them will have access to legal help. The average low-income household in Washington faces more than nine legal issues every year — nearly triple the number from a decade earlier.

Even one unresolved legal problem can escalate into a series of complex and interconnected challenges that quickly endanger people’s health, housing or financial security. Because these kinds of issues so often mean the difference between hunger or food on the table, homelessness or a roof overhead, poverty or economic stability, your support for civil legal aid helps low-income people meet their most basic human needs.

Your support for civil legal aid also advances system and policy changes that break cycles of poverty forever. Your gifts to the Endowment fund organizations that advocate for fair policies at the local and state level — for example, defending people’s rights to be treated without discrimination when they apply for housing or jobs, working to protect public benefits from cuts or restrictions, or advancing legislation to safeguard non-violent juvenile offenders from discrimination by sealing their records.